Valentine's Day is coming up...

So the stores have started to pack Valentine's Day items in place of the Christmas ones which are now marked at 70% off. As soon as the Christmas ones go, hearts, candy, and red and pink is all you see down the aisles of the stores. I follow the crowd in buying a little bit of candy and of course Valentine's Day cards for my family and friends. The hype over the holiday however, makes my stomach churn, and not in a good way.

Flowers, candy, cards...it's all merchandise. Love...now that is all that should matter. Valentine's Day is definitely a retailers holiday, made up by candy and flower companies and Hallmark.

I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day. A lot of it has to do with the fact that for most of my life I never had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day, so it made me kind of sad in some way because it was like you were supposed to have someone to call your Valentine. Even though my boyfriend and I have been dating for almost 3 years now, I still haven't spent a Valentine's Day with him, because it was during the week and neither of us could do that. This year it's on a Saturday and we're falling into the cliche world of Valentine's Day because I want to spend it with him.

Why spend one day a year showing someone how much you love them? Why does there have to be a special day for it? After being in a long-term relationship I think I appreciate Valentine's Day a little more. The romance in a relationship dies down as time goes on. There just doesn't seem to be enough time from either of us to make time for romance. I think we made an effort in the beginning but as you become more comfortable with each other it doesn't seem as big of a deal to make time for that.

So although I think Valentine's Day is a commercial holiday meant to raise money following the after-Christmas buying season, I am planning on participating this year because I think we need to spend some romantic time together.

I have an article here that came from the U.S. Census Bureau, infoplease.com, New York Daily News, Hallmark research, Retail Industry Leaders Association that I think is kinda neat, so I'm gonna share it with you:

A number of reasons to love Valentine's Day

From candy and flowers to jewelry and greetings cards, love is in the air on Valentine's Day. Check out these numbers to find out some sweet details about Feb. 14.

14: Date in February about 270 A.D. when St. Valentine, a Roman clergyman was executed for secretly marrying couples. Some say that's why our Valentine's Day is celebrated on Feb. 14.

1,198: Number of locations that sell chocolate and cocoa products in the United States.

53: Percent of men who have Googled, MySpaced, Facebooked or done other online research about a potential date or significant other. Percentage of women who have done online research? 54.

180 million: Number of cards exchanged annually on Valentine's Day (exclusing packaged kids' cards).

21,135: Number of florists in the United States.

44: Percent of couples who celebrate Valentine's Day by going out on a date.

54: Percent of women who have lied to get out of a bad date.

81: Percent of men who have mementos from their exes.

26: Pounds of candy consumed by Americans, per capita.